An easy Vorlich and a rocky Stuc A'Chroin

[kirstyfc]

Due to other commitments I hadn’t been out to the mountains in a month – a long time by my standards at the time – and I was very excited to get back. Myself and my walking friend Jennifer were headed for Ben Vorlich and its neighbour Stuc A’ Chroin. We parked at the start amongst many other cars and followed the signs that said hill walkers this way.

Heading up through the trees

Lovely flower field

Handy

We passed two men who had no less than six dogs, some were excited and running around, others were lying in a nearby ditch trying to cool down. One of them (the men) said “I’ve got another one! He’s a collie with a brown patch on his front! If you see him, send him down!” Aye okay…

A mile further up the track a collie with a brown under coat appeared. Here he was! We had no idea how to send him back down. He followed us for ages running wildly around and other people seemed to be getting the impression he belonged to us but after a while he took interest in somebody else.

Here he is

I was very pleasantly surprised when we reached the top – it hadn’t felt too difficult at all, however I had to bear in mind we had the more difficult one to go.

Ben Vorlich peak

(Not my artwork) Would be interested to know if this was still up there

After some fun pictures we set off for the next one, and with it in sight, I was thinking a bridge over wouldn’t got a miss. We got over to the bottom of it and we were just trying to work out the best way to go up, aware that there is a way up scrambling. A man came along and asked us if this was the way – not a good idea to ask us we saw where there may be the opportunity to start scrambling however we decided to continue round and up the mountain in a more stable way instead. I spoke to a friend who did this mountain the following day and said the scramble was the fun part but never mind.

What way up?

Heading up

We reached the top without any great difficulty and were happy with our second two bag day.

A rocky Stuc A'Chroin on the left and a smoother Ben Vorlich on the right

The two peaks of Stuc A'Chroin

What comes up must come down, and I was in a hurry for a big night out that night this involved coming down the steep part then around Ben Vorlich to then head back down the path up the way we had originally taken up Vorlich.

Chilling or fallen down?

Walking through fields of flowers and past some lovely country houses signified the bottom, and it was the painful last ten minutes along to where we had parked the car!

Looking back up to Ben Vorlich

A great day out, with Ben Vorlich remaining pleasantly easy and Stuc A’ Chroin not being too difficult either.